Craft Supply Organization: Paper Shelf

I know that I’ve posted about my fabulous paper storage shelf before, but I’ve had a lot of questions about it recently. It seems that the link to the directions no longer works because my husband posted them on another site.

Shelf clips – need them as flat as possible to take up minimal space. I recommend Knape & Vogt spoon clips, Product # SP12426, can be ordered at most hardware stores in bulk. You’ll need 4 for each shelf.

Fasteners:

(30) 2” wood screws or drywall screws

(1) 2” metal “L” bracket -for anchoring to wall for tip protection.

Tools:

Circular saw or table saw.

Drill

Screwdriver (power drill/driver recommended)

Instructions for frame:

BEFORE cutting the 9’ pieces of pre-drilled shelving material to length, lay all (4) pieces out on the floor to make sure that you orient the pre-drilled holes BEFORE cutting these pieces. The pre-drilled holes MUST line up for the finished shelves to be level. You can use the bottom factory edge as a starting point for the (2) middle sections with holes on both sides. (save the cut ends for inner shelves)

Cut the 4’ piece of solid material down to 3’ for the top.

Cut the left over pieces of the vertical supports for use as inner shelves. Need to cut (5) 12” wide pieces and (1) 9” wide piece.

Lay out the vertical supports and the top plate as shown on the plans. Drill 2 holes per vertical support in the top plate, 1” in from front and back edge (using a drill bit slightly smaller than the screws you have selected) at the specified distances for the shelf widths.

Attach all (4) vertical supports to the top using 2” wood screws or drywall screws. (Gluing all connections before you screw them together will add some extra rigidity)

Attach the 3 bottom supports as shown on the plan. Pre-drill and use 4 screws for each of the 3 bottom support pieces. Notice that the middle support is ¾” lower than the others so you can get screws in both sides of all 3 bottom support pieces.

Attach the inner shelves at dimensions per plan(optional) using 4 screws per shelf.

Instructions for paper cardstock shelves:

Determine the number of 12” cardstock shelves you want. Each 2’ x 4’ sheet of material can produce (8) 12” shelves.

Cut each 2’x4’ sheet per plan to produce the required amount of 12” cardstock shelves.

Determine the number of 9” cardstock shelves you want. Each 2’ x 4’ sheet of material can produce (10) 9” shelves.

Cut each 2’x4’ sheet per plan to produce the required amount of 9” cardstock shelves.

Instructions for installing shelves:

Install shelf clips in all pre-drilled holes that you will be installing cardstock shelves for.

Slide shelves into place, seating them on all four shelf clips for each shelf.

Safety requirements:

The completed unit is very heavy, which requires this to be anchored to the wall to prevent accidental tipping over, which could result in serious injury or death. Several methods work well. The easiest would be a metal L bracket, anchored to a wall stud and screwed to one of the vertical supports, somewhere on the upper 1/3 portion of the unit. This can be done before the cardstock shelves are set in place and it will not be visible when the shelves are in place.

So there you have it. It’s all greek to me, but if you have questions, contact me and I will ask my husband.

Join the discussion 13 Comments

Jessica,
Thank you and your husband for sharing the instructions for building this paper storage. I’ve been looking for ideas on how to build one of these for awhile now and found your’s through Pinterest! Can you tell me how many paper shelves your’s has? I can’t get the picture large enough for me to count.
Thanks!

I cannot thank you enough for you and your husband’s willingness to share your knowledge! I am in the process of doing my craft room and have been looking for this setup to show my husband. Then you are generous enough to share your knowledge….AWESOME! God Bless you both!

Do you have any problem with your card stock fading since there are not doors on the shelves? I have 2 windows in my craft room, so I try to keep my card stock on a lower shelf in their holders, or away from the windows but I’m running out of room! Your room looks awesome!